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Toronto Argonauts edge Montreal Alouettes 23-20, take over first place in East

Argo slotback Chad Owens had one of the best games of his CFL career as Toronto took over sole possession of first place in the East with a 23-20 victory over the Als on Friday night in Montreal.

Argonauts wide receiver Dontrelle Inman hauls in a pass ahead of Alouettes cornerback Seth Williams during the first quarter Friday night in Montreal. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Bob MitchellSports Reporter

Sat., July 28, 2012

MONTREAL—There seemed to be only one way to stop the Chad Owens juggernaut.

Either take him out or change from man-to-man defence to zone coverage.

The Montreal Alouettes did both but by then the Owens had already inflicted too much offensive damage as the Toronto Argonauts rode the Flynin’ Hawaiian to a pair of TDs and the golden toe of kicker Swayze Waters for a 23-20 victory on Friday night over the Alouettes before an announced crowd of 22,753 at Percival Molson Stadium.

In a CFL game that featured two of the league’s top quarterbacks, it was Owens and Waters, who had one of the best games of their careers.

The Argonauts slotback caught two TD passes — something he hadn’t done since August 2010 against the Alouettes — and had his head nearly ripped off by Als safety Kyries Hebert when he was about to break a kickoff for another TD as Toronto took over sole possession of first place in the East.

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Waters kicked three field goals, warming up with a 15-yarder and then connected on a pair from 50-yards, including what proved to be the winner in the fourth quarter.

“It was a hard-nose play (the hit) by a player, who is big and physical but that’s what they’re going to do to try and take me out and I welcome all of that,” said Owens, 30, who caught seven passes for 97 yards and TDs of 32 and 10 yards, all in the first 30 minutes as Toronto took a 20-13 lead into the second half.

“I’m not happy about (getting hit) but it happens. If I let things like that linger, it will affect my next play. They played us zone in the second half. They made adjustments but when you’re getting beat, you have to.”

Owens missed only a couple of plays after his helmet was ripped off.

“He had me in a head lock and I went face first into the turf and my helmet hit my nose (as it came off),” Owens said. “It was throbbing. But I didn’t get knocked out. I thought I was going to break one (for a kick return TD).

“Was it a clean hit, yah, but I don’t really know. Could he have tackled me another way? Maybe. That’s something the league has to look at and protect us but that low cut block on Derrick Summers after that missed field goal. In my opinion, that was a dirty play.”

Summers was down for several minutes but the rookie defensive tackle returned later in the game, after Shea Emry's hit.

The second half switch from man-to-man to zone coverage also affected quarterback Ricky Ray’s passing game. He connected on 14 of 18 passes for 236 yards in the first half and finished with 20 of 30 for 280 yards as Toronto improved to 3-2 while Montreal dropped to 2-3.

A key end zone interception by Argos cornerback Patrick Watkins took one Montreal TD pass away from Seth Green and linebacker Brandon Isaac’s sack, the only one of the game on Montreal QB Anthony Calvillo, forced Sean Whyte to go for a 54-yard field goal as the game ended but he missed. Earlier, Whyte hit on four of five field goals and also kicked a 55-yard single.

“They did a good job of moving the ball but when we needed to make a play we did,” Isaac said. “It’s really hard to get to Calvillo because he gets the ball out so fast. He reads the coverage and he is the all-time best quarterback in this league. At the end, I just beat my man. I was determined to get there. I didn’t make too many plays but I promised myself I would make a play for the team and I came through at the end and made a play.”

Until his first TD of the season in last week’s 25-22 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Owens hadn’t got a pass in the end zone in 22 games dating back to October 2010.

Calvillo had a solid game, sustaining several long drives as he completed 25 of 42 for 317 yards and a TD to Brandon London, who led all receivers with 102 yards on five catches.

“We can’t seem to put two halves together,” said Argos coach Scott Milanovich, who returned to Montreal where he called plays for Calvillo for the previous four seasons as the Als offensive co-ordinator. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to. We need to get to back to work and put a full game together.

“Our guys had an edge tonight. I felt that in the meeting on Thursday night. Swayze went out there and hit some long field goals that were the difference. We had some break downs in the second half but they changed coverage on us. We didn’t run the ball particularly well. We got into a little bit of a funk and couldn’t get it going.

“But there were a lot of big plays. That interception at the end of the first half by Watkins was critical and so was the sack by Isaac.” DE Ejiro Kuale also made a key fumble recovery.

The Argos’ special teams kickoff coverage was atrocious in the first half. Trent Guy nearly broke four of five kickoffs as Montreal started every play from around midfield. But most times the Toronto defence bent but didn’t break, with Whyte settling for field goals from 26 and 36 yards and a 55-yard single.

Argos left tackle Wayne Smith was injured and likely won’t be ready to play next Monday against the B.C, Lions at the Rogers Centre. DT Derrick Summers got injured on a missed field goal but returned to the game.

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